Grain-drier



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Y .IA'MEs L. NORTON, OE BUFEALOMILLs, PENNSYLVANIA.

cRAlN-DRIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of I'etters Patent No. 224,217, dated February 3, 18'80.

I Application led December 8, 1879. v

To all whom t may concern Be it'known that- I, JAMES L. NORTON, of Bualo Mills, in the county of Bedford and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Grain-Driers;

and I do hereby declare that the following,

is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable Others skilled in` the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference beingA had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and in which- Fignre 1 is a plan or top View. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal axial section. Fig. Sis an end View. Fig. 4. is a vertical cross-section on line a: w in Fig. l, showing the slide and lever for regulating the feed of' grain to the drier; and Fig. 5 is a similar section taken on line y y, Fig. 2.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

This invention has relation to grain-driers; and it consists in the improvement hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the claims. Y

Inthe drawings, A is a cylindrical case, whichsurrounds a smaller cylinder, B, open at one end, and provided with a central shaft, C, carrying an Archimedean screw, D, the blades or spiral of which impinge upon the walls of the inner cylinder, B.

The outer cylinder, A, has a ilange, a, at oneend, so as to form a cylindrical closed steam-chamber, b, surrounding the inneropen Steam is admitted to the chamber ZA through a pipe, E, on top, and escapes through the pipe F, under the 'bottom of the cylinder, both of which pipes may be provided Vwith suitable valves or stop-cocks'.

G is a safety-valve placed upon the top of cylinder A, and H is a short-tube reaching through the steam-chamber b from the outside,

and provided with a recessed plug, I, the rev cess t' of which has -an aperture, h, which, by turning 'the plug in its tube H, .may be set so as to register with an opening, 7c, in the tube, which opens into' the steam-chamber b. It follows that by turning plug I so as to bring the grain to the burrs.

the apertures h k opposite to each other, steam 5o will pass from the steam-chamber b, through the apertures h 7c and recess i, into the open grain-cylinder B, by which the grain contained in said cylinder Amay be moistened, if too dry., y Y

Grain is fed to cylinderB through a hopper, K, which terminates in a tube, K', impingingl upon the shaft C of the Archimedea-n screw D.

The hopper K with its tube may be adjusted vertically by means of a slide, L,'\ provided with a bail Or keep'elgl, through which tube K' is inserted, the said slide being operated by an angle-lever, M M. By depressing the handle M' of this lever the hopper with its tube is raised, Vincreasin g the dist-ance between the lower end of the tube and shaft C, and thus enabling alarger quantity of grain to be fed into cylinder B in a given time. -Hence the feed of grain to the drier may always be regulated by simply adjusting the lever M M', without stopping or otherwise interfering with the operation of the machine.

The central shaft, C, with its Archimedean vscrew or propeller D, is rotated by means of a pulley, d, at one end, so as to'pass the grain slowly and evenly through the drying-cylinder until it escapes from the open`end of this into the hopper N, through which it is fed to the burrs.

I prefer, for the sake of convenience and to economize space, to suspend this apparatus by hangers under lthe joists of the roof or ceiling of the mill,whereit is entirely out of the way, and yet in a convenient position for feeding Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States- 1. In a grain-drier, the combination, with the drying-'cylinder B, provided with the rotatin g shaft C and Archimedean screw or propeller D, of the vertically-adjustable hopper K K', slide L, having keeper l, and lever M, provided with the handle M', substantially as and for the purpose herein shown and described. Y

2. The herein-described apparatus for drying grain, consisting of the double cylinder A ber, b, which is provided with an inlet, E,

B, forming a cylindrical hollow steam-oham-fl outlet F, safety-vulve G, and tube El, having I aperture k, plug I, provided with the recess 'i and aperture h, vertieally-adjustable hopper K K', rotating shaft G, provided with im Arehimedean screw or propeller, D, lInd opere.tin,gpnlle}fv d, and receiving-norma' N, all construotedand combined to operate substanl 

